"Your Survival Strategies Are Killing You!"

Who’s Accountable?

“We created him and now we are rationalizing him. When will it stop?”

Jeff Flake, Republican Senator from Arizona

Who’s Accountable?

(This will be my last post on Trump for a while . . . I hope! The number and nature of vile and insidious transgressions Trump has perpetrated throughout his candidacy and during his first six months in the Presidency are too many to mention.)

Please read to the end to see what you can do – and do something!

Every day, every week, we think it can’t get any worse and it does. He mocks the disabled, enables police brutality, incites violence with statements such as: “Beat the crap out of him. I want to punch him in the face!”, he tells the Boy Scouts the federal government is a sewer and encourages the teens to boo our former President, he bans transgender people from military service, he fires people left and right, he refuses to hold Russia accountable for interfering in the election, and meets with KGB agents alone in the White House. He grabs for p***y, supported vulgarities from Scaramucci, his new communications guy (now gone, thanks to General Kelly)…

It goes on and on. It never stops. It’s beyond outrageous. It’s crazy. The White House has become a nut house run by its most unstable patient!

As NYT Op-Ed Charles Blow says:

“There is something insidious and corrosive about trying to evaluate the severity of every offense, trying to give each an individual grade on the scale of absurdity. Trump himself is the offense. Everything that springs from him, every person who supports him, every staffer who shields him, every legislator who defends him, is an offense. Every partisan who uses him – against all he or she has ever claimed to champion – to advance a political agenda and, in so doing, places party over country, is an offense.”

People keep hoping he will change. “Give him time” they say. But therein lies the problem. Trump is Trump and he is a psychologically sick man (see my last WoW: Is Trump Mentally Ill?

He is unstable, unpredictable, irrational and out-of-control and that’s not going to change no matter how much time he has. He is simply doing what people

do who are mentally ill. Chaos, incompetency and erratic behavior should be expected. Yet, incredulously, many still support him.

Why and who are they?

The VictimsSeeking to Feel Powerful – his “base” – mostly unsophisticated, uneducated/untrained people who feel unsupported and unheard, who feel like they are about to be left behind in a rapidly changing world they don’t understand and to which they don’t know how to adapt. They are afraid and know no other way of reacting than to fight, hate, blame.These are people with a limited scope of understanding or interest in global affairs who are worried about their job losses. Rather than think out of the box and look for other ways to make a living (i.e. coal miners), they stay stuck with what they know. They are in survival.

They have been ignored and they are angry and rightfully so! The Democrats did a lousy job of reaching them. They want a voice and Trump, who could care less about their plight, has given it to them to get himself into power.

Often, because of their limited scope of exposure, they are prejudiced against anyone unlike themselves. Trump reinforces their fears with his hateful rhetoric towards Mexicans and Moslems and they cheer! They readily respond to an “us against them” rhetoric.

They mock the educated because they themselves are not educated and thus feel empowered by Trump’s crass ignorance, bullying and lack of knowledge about history, the Constitution, global affairs, even the Affordable Care Act with his name on it and other bills that require in-depth study and knowledge.

Their lives are run by scarcity, they live in fear and react with anger and hate. They are the people who believe what they read in The Enquirer and are among the 5.9 million people who tune into Alex Jones, the hate monger who claims the Sandy Hook massacre was a government conspiracy under Obama. They respond with mob mentality: “Lock her up!”

These are not bad people. They are uninformed, limited people who are afraid of their futures and are worried about how they will be able to care for their families. They want their old ways back. They want the old America back, the one they understood. They need training, understanding and support.

Unfortunately, their admirable patriotism and “down home” simple values have been severely manipulated and used by Trump and the GOP. They feel powerless and are unlikely to change. They tend to follow authoritarian, “kick-ass” leaders, and are enamored with people with money who live a lifestyle they will never have. In order to feel powerful, they vent their fears and frustrations through negativity.

The MisguidedRight-WingEvangelicalswho Mindlessly Turn Their Power Over to their religious leaders who claim to stand for a higher Christian calling, but in reality, are just power interest groups in Washington pushing their own agenda while they personally rake in the money.On the one hand, these people try to be Christian and they strongly believe they are when they stand for their values of anti-abortion and anti-LGBT rights and yet, on the other hand, they sell their souls and ignore their other moral values when they support Trump.

Would Jesus have looked the other way when Trump ridiculed the disabled, cast hatred towards the Moslems, refused refuge to the refugees, viciously demeaned women, bullied the weak, ignored the poor, and lied, lied, lied, lied, lied . . . ?

Would Jesus have supported the end justifying the means . . . winning at any cost even if you have to violate your own values? Trump does and so does the GOP . . . and these misguided Christians follow.

The Powerfulwho Seek to Overpower – Corporate entities, money brokers, and Republicans who have consciously sold their own souls, violated human decency, eroded dignity and willingly overlooked Trump’s grave, insidious lies and deceptions.They have willingly and knowingly excused Trump’s gross ignorance and lack of critical understanding of how to effectively deal with everything from how the government works, to health care to our rapidly declining relationships with world powers, all to simply advance their own agenda(s).

In their attempt to pass the Health Care Act, any old Health Care Act, they recklessly put their desire to win at any cost ahead of the health and well-being of the American people. They didn’t care if it was good or not, they just wanted to get it through. They just wanted to win. Get it done so we can move on to the next agenda – lowering taxes on the rich.

They have jeopardized the safety and security of our country, put their personal interests in front of responsible legislation and have been willing to ignore the core tenants of democracy. They have used and manipulated the less fortunate. They have manipulated working class and middle class people to support policies that hurt themselves, by supporting Trump who falsely proclaims his “Christian values” Ha! Trump and the GOP win, they all lose. This group is the most dangerous because they are the leaders.

“If this was our Faustian bargain, then it was not worth it. If ultimately our principles were so malleable as to no longer be principles, then what was the point of political victories in the first place?”

Republican Senator Jeff Flake

“When will it stop?” Senator Flake asks. It will stop when other Republicans of influence (the party in power), like the Senator, take accountability for the role they have played in this insanity. It will stop when they all stand up to Trump and refuse to play his dangerous game (thank you, Senators Collins and Murkowski). It will stop when they all stop mindlessly supporting his abhorrent and hateful behavior towards others, his twisted lies and manipulative deceit, his bigotry, prejudice and cruel, crass bullying.

It will stop when they ALL stop being the obstructionist party and start working with people and not against them. For seven years all the GOP did was to obstruct and undermine Obamacare. But when it came time to put their money where their mouth is, they failed. They had nothing.

It will stop when enough people in positions of influence stop selling their souls to pass their own agendas and start putting human values before hate, decency before deceit and the truth before lies. It will stop when they go high every time Trump goes low. It will stop when they ALL take 100% accountability for their personal actions, reactions and inactions that produced this insidious result called “Trump”.

We must remember the change that must happen will not come just from Trump leaving. It will only occur when the context changes that supported him into power in the first place, and keeps him there. That will only happen when a critical mass of people of power and influence stop playing an “end justifies the means” kind of game of Win/Lose (winning at someone else’s expense) where they will do anything to advance their own agendas, even violate their own moral standards.

Integrity, mutual respect and honesty are the foundational tenants of civilization that allow people in productive societies throughout the world to peacefully live, work, and play side by side without fear or apprehension. We all have an innate sense of justice and fairness and we all know when we are living and operating in alignment with these principles.

For far too long, the general American populous has been sick of the way Congress has ignored these principles and refused to work together. It has been a disgrace the way intelligent grown men and women have acted like children.

Are they accountable for creating the mind-set in which a wildly dysfunctional figure such as Trump will appear? You bet. And the Democrats are as accountable as the Republicans. They smugly thought they “had it in the bag” and completely ignored the frustrations of the countless millions that needed to be heard. They didn’t hear the cries and furor of those who have felt neglected.

As Fareed Zakaria points out, the Democrats have been so focused on sub groups, women, Hispanics, Black Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, they have lost sight of the need to focus on national unity and that makes a lot of people angry.

Although each of these groups needs advocates, the Democrats have lost touch with the need to hear the wants and needs of those in West Virginia as much as those of the sub groups they support. They didn’t pay attention to attention to the “little guy” and the “little guy” rose up and gave them the wake-up call they deserved.

The Democrats have taken a road that has excluded many. They have refracted a single beam of light into its constituent colors and produced a rainbow, forgetting the motto of our country is: Out of many . . . ONE. They are accountable because they have self-righteously lost a focus on oneness, on a national unity that must respect and listen to everyone.

But never, ever forget . . . we the people are completely accountable, too! Every action, reaction and inaction each one of us took produced the Trump result. We have, and have had choice every step of the way – to vote, not vote, or vote for someone who couldn’t possibly get elected… to speak up or stay silent, to complain, but do nothing… to blame others or seek solutions… to spew hateful rhetoric or build bridges.

Each one of us has chosen every single act of communication we have initiated (intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual) and each and every choice each of us has made has either created connection or separation.

Results don’t lie. Like Senator Jeff Fluke, each one of us needs look no further than the mirror to understand who is accountable and with that realization goes the responsibility to take action.

We need to all stop and reassess our own thinking and the role we have individually played that has divided this country and put a megalomaniac in the White House.

But regardless, Trump has to go because here’s the kicker and mark my words… when people with his level of mental instability feel cornered, or realize they are losing control, they are very likely to do something extreme and horrific to keep from losing. They are often willing to take everyone down with them to prove their virility, their absolute power and control.

The Senate overwhelmingly voted for strict sanctions against Russia (97-2) and made it so the President cannot intervene, thus casting a bi-partisan vote that indicates their significant lack of trust in Trump’s ability to make constructive decisions on behalf of the safety of the country.

This is nothing to fool around with. A narcissistic, psychopathic pathological liar doesn’t think or respond like normal people. Jim Jones, David Koresh, Charles Manson come to mind as a big warning as an ever increasing troubled and anxious Trump begins to realize the reality that he does not have the control he feels he must have to keep winning.

How far will he go to prove he is the most powerful man in the world? As Melania herself says, “When he is attacked, he hits back 10x harder.” (She should know.) He threatens North Korea, embraces Russia, alienates our Allies, and the nuclear code is in his hands. (Those who think my warning is an exaggeration know not the behaviors of a narcissist who feels ridiculed and threatened).

A thin thread of hope exists with the Republican Party to stand up to him and so far, aside from a glimmer of hope from a few here and there, the others have shown no back-bone whatsoever. But the momentum is starting to build against him.

At six months into his Presidency, he has an approval rating of 34-36%…the lowest of any President since WWII. People are beginning to wake up. Trumpcare is dead because of brave constituents (many who even voted for Trump) spoke up against it. They are beginning to see the Emperor has no clothes. They are beginning to realize too much unchecked power is in the hands of a crazy man.

But we must do more than this. We must get him out before it is too late. Mind you, I would personally hate to see Pence as President, but that’s just politics.

My concern with Trump is not based in politics.

My concern is to do whatever we can to preserve the dignity of the office of President and the reputation of our country before he destroys them, along with everything that is good in this world.

If supported by enough people, I think a threat of impeachment will get Trump to resign. I don’t believe he will ever go through an impeachment process. He will quit first, shift into his alternate reality world, blame everyone else, claim people kept him from making America Great Again and will declare himself a winner. Like cult followers, his base will follow him no matter what, and all the rest of us will be declared losers.

6 Responses

You got it right here (as you usually do.)
And thanks for giving all the contact information.

One of the things that strikes me is what I learned from Hillbilly Elegy, which I believe you read…
That by the time some of “the base” are 3 years old, their brains are hard wired for the (reptilian) fight or flight response due to the extreme alcoholism and violence, which marks their early environment, if not personal experience as well.
Supporting #45 would represent, in my opinion, a change from flight (in not addressing their problems) to fight, in an easy way to take the only alternative they know.
So, if the author was right, these people are more than uninformed, uneducated and limited in experience. They are limited in their ability to respond.

So, my question is what happens when they finally realize that #45 is not fighting for them, as they must if they have any intelligence, and any access to real news, at all? Maybe we will have that long overdue revolution.

I’ll get right on the contacts. I agree with you totally – Pence is anathema – would set our country back 100 years – but not enough to delay the ousting of #45. With similar egomaniacs in Russia and N. Korea, anything could happen at any time for absolutely no good reason.

What a beautifully written and spot-on analysis of the Trump world. Thank you for the thorough descriptions, quotes and insight.

I do hope you are sending this to more than your list of clients, and including lawmakers and public/social media sites…
There is change happening, and worse on the horizon. We may not be able to change the country, but we can be vigilant in taking control of changing the one piece of the planet we can control…ourselves.

In case you didn’t see this…the scariest part is the “abandoned anonymity.” Molly

A White Supremacist Administration

“We lay this weekend’s violence squarely at the feet of Donald Trump. His rhetoric and staffing choices — as well as speeches and policy priorities — conjure White Ethno-Nationalist values on an almost-daily basis. In the last month alone, the DOJ has declared that it will make discrimination against white people a priority and the DHS has formalized a preference for English speaking immigrants. This is to say nothing about the Muslim ban or the wall at the southern border. Taken together, they seek to re-establish a sense of white cultural dominance in which the opportunities of people of color to succeed come second to others, if at all. The white supremacists have absorbed the message of government endorsement: they abandoned the anonymity and darkness historically connected to their public displays of hate and lawlessness, emboldened to march in broad daylight without hoods covering their faces.”

Martha, this is spot on. He is so dangerous and never more so than when he’s in competition with another narcissistic bully like the leader of North Korea. If they get into a pissing contest, it might be over for the rest of us whom they don’t care about.
Thanks for all the congressional contacts.